We have
compiled a list of twenty trends, in the news, for 2007.
You can read this
review by clicking on the link below
http://www.understandthetimes.org/yir200
7.shtml
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January 24 - Methodists To Mull Divestment From Israel
Article: .Israel And The Last Days
The
nation's largest and most prominent
mainline Protestant denomination, the 11
million-member United Methodist
Church - whose members include both
President Bush and Senator Clinton - is
set to take up the issue of whether
to divest from companies that do
business with Israel.
The
meeting, which is to be held on Friday
in Fort Worth, Texas, will mark the
highest level of consideration that the
subject of economic divestment from
the Jewish state has received within the
Methodist denomination.
Key
questions hanging over the event
will be whether the church will decide
to use its $16 billion pension fund as an
economic tool against Israel, and
whether divestment would shatter the
church's traditional relationship with
American Jews.
If the
church moves ahead with a divestment
resolution on the national level, the denomination
would become the largest Protestant
group to embrace such a measure. The
General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church, which has 2.4 million members,
voted in favor of such a measure in
2004.
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January 25 - Religious Leaders Celebrate 'Equality Sabbath' in support of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Oregonians
Article: Signs Of The Last Times
(PORTLAND, Ore.) -
Religious and
congregational leaders celebrate the
call to equality by observing Equality
Sabbath January 25th - 27th,
2008. During their regularly scheduled
Sabbath observance,
participating congregations will focus on
themes of inclusion and equality
for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender community.
"This
weekend reflects a spiritual act of
solidarity," says
Rev. Tara Wilkins, Executive Director of the
Community of Welcoming
Congregations and chief organizer of the
event.
"We
feel that regardless of one's sexual
orientation or gender identity, we are all
children of the same Creator."
Each Equality Sabbath
observance will reflect the unique
traditions of the individual
participating congregations. Some
congregations will discuss equality in the
context of a sermon, host adult
education classes, table at a coffee hour
or fellowship time, or make
inclusive music
selections.
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January 27 - Jesus came to announce that God is at hand, says Pope
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
Vatican
City (AsiaNews) - The "Good
News" that Jesus came to announce mean that
"God, in Him, is at hand, that he
already rules amongst us as
demonstrated by the miracles and healing he
performs." "Where Jesus
arrives, the creative Spirit brings life and heals
men from the illnesses of the body and of
the spirit. God's lordship
manifests itself through man's complete
healing."
"My
dear young friends," he added, "I know
that you are committed to those of your
age you who are suffering from war
and poverty. Continue on the path that
Jesus has shown us to build true peace!
"
The 'Good News' that Jesus proclaimed
is best encapsulated by these words:
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand" (Mt, 4:17;
Mk, 1:15). What does this expression
mean? It certainly does not mean an
earthly kingdom, one found in space and
time; instead, it announces that it is God
who rules, that God is Lord and
this Lordship is
present, current and in the process
of being realised. The newness of Christ's
message is thus that in Him God
is at hand, that he already rules amongst
us as demonstrated by the miracles
and healing he performs. God rules
through his Son made man and the
power of the Holy Spirit, called the
"the finger of God" (cf Lk,
11:20). Where Jesus arrives, the
creative Spirit brings life and heals men
from the illnesses of the body and
of the spirit. God's lordship manifests
itself through man's complete
healing. This way Jesus shows God's true
face, God at hand; full of mercy
for every human being; the God that gives
us the gift of life in abundance,
his own life. The Kingdom of God is
therefore life that asserts itself over
death, the light of truth that dissipates the
darkness of ignorance and
lies."
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NEWS ALERT - January 27 - Filipino priest's healing ministry under observation after two die
Article: Signs And Wonders
Manila, Jan
27, 2008
/ 09:58 pm (CNA)
.-
A priest's healing ministry in the
Philippines
that attracts
thousands of people will continue to be monitored
following two
deaths at a crowded healing service, said a
senior official of
the Catholic Bishops Conference of the
Philippines
(CBCP), the Sun Star reports.
Father
Fernando Suarez, a 41-year-old member of the
Companions of
the Cross, has
been holding popular healing
services in both
the United States and the Philippines.
He
left the Philippines
for Canada in 1995, and was ordained a priest
in 2002.
ABS-CBN
News reported two people died
at a
Saturday service
held by Father Suarez in Olongapo City that
attracted a crowd
of 10,000. One of them suffered a heart attack
from the press off
the crowd and later died. In addition, several
people collapsed
from the intense heat. Some blamed the
deaths on the lack
of security measures at the event.
The
Philippines bishops' conference Public Affairs head
Bishop
Deogracias
Iniguez Jr. said the
church
would not stop
people from attending the priest's healing
Masses.
The bishop
apparently acknowledged the authenticity of Father
Suarez's healing
gifts.
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January 28 - Rick Warren: Mainline Church Problems Need Evangelical Solution
Article: Social Gospel
Comment from
Understand The
Times:
Rick Warren seems to
indicate that
his P.E.A.C. E.
Plan can unite evangelical Christians with Mainline
liberal Christians.
Depending on the definition of
"evangelical"
Christian, this
would be difficult. Bible believing evangelical
Christians believe
that Jesus Christ is God and Saviour and Lord.
Liberal Christians
do not believe in the authority of Scripture, nor
do they believe that
Jesus is the Son of God.
Warren's P.E.A.C.E. plan,
plans to
work with other
religions as long as those of other religions have a
common goal to
do good. According to Jesus, you can't be good
enough
to go to heaven
without accepting Him and the Plan of salvation.
Therefore the
P.E.A.C.E. and the Plan of Salvation are two different
plans.
"The reconciliation is that in a
pluralistic
world.we (Christians) need to be on the
same
team because we
share the same savior," Warren
contended
Sunday, as he
spoke with the dean of the Washington National
Cathedral, Samuel
T. Lloyd III, who observed
that evangelical
churches are thriving and full of vitality, while
most mainline
denominations are confronting worrisome
membership
decline.
"100 years ago the
phrase 'social gospel'
first came
out," Warren responded.
"Some
people took that to mean only if we reform the social
government and
society and not personal faith in Christ Jesus - that
is, if we make the
world a better place - we don't need personal
redemption."
That idea led to mainline churches going "one
way" and
evangelical
churches another way, he said. In general,
mainline churches focused on social
morality
such as fighting
poverty, racism and economic justice. Meanwhile,
evangelical
churches concentrated on personal morality such as
personal salvation,
fighting pornography, and upholding family
values.
"Who's right? The
fact is both
are
right," Warren emphasized.
"Somehow we got divided like
Jesus didn't care
about society or
members of society didn't need Jesus. I think we
need
both."
"You
can't just love your neighbor; you got to love
God," Warren
said. "And
you can't just love God; you have to love your
neighbors.
And mainline protestant and
evangelical - we
need both
wings."
Other points in
Warren's talk Sunday included
his global P.E.A.C.E. Plan and his
belief in
the need for a
second reformation - one where Christians change
their behavior to
reflect what they claim to believe in.
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January 16 - Everything Hasn't Changed
Article: Misc.
In Everything Must Change: Jesus,
Global Crises, and a
Revolution of Hope (Thomas Nelson), Brian
McLaren-one of the two or
three most influential figures in the
"emergent"
movement-pursues a similar project, though one even
more
ambitious than Lakoff's.
McLaren
attempts nothing less than a
reframing of what Jesus taught and what it
means to follow him on the
Way.
McLaren
contrasts what he calls
"conventional" frames
("frequently defined
as 'orthodoxy,'" he writes) with
"emerging" frames.
So, for example,
in the
emerging view, "Jesus
came to become the Savior of the world, meaning he
came to save the earth and all
it contains from its ongoing destruction
because of human
evil."
McLaren intends to
correct an overemphasis on
Last Things in the "conventional" view of
salvation. Instead, he
stresses
"the privilege of
participating in [Jesus'] ongoing work of personal and
global transformation and
liberation from evil and
injustice."
McLaren sets this discussion
in the context of an apocalyptic global
crisis. Whereas Lakoff writes with urgency
inspired by what he sees as a
"radical revolution" brought about by
American conservatives,
McLaren
speaks of our global
civilization as a "suicide
machine."
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January 28 - Atlanta meeting unique enough to prompt real change, Baptists say
Article: Social Gospel
NEW YORK (ABP) -- The
Celebration of a
New Baptist Covenant meeting will feature some
notable guests:
Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Tony
Campolo and
John Grisham, to name a few. But
after
the star-studded
dust settles, what will emerge from the
convocation?
Some say it's
too soon to tell what exactly will come of the
gathering,
scheduled for Jan. 30-Feb. 1 in Atlanta.
Organizers
hope it will
improve Baptists' image and unite them in a new
wave of
social activism.
Others wonder whether it will lead denominational
bodies to work
closer together or urge grassroots entities to band
together -- or both.
"My feeling is that we're taking
the best
people we know,
the people in the trenches . and trying to connect
that up and let that
flow," Jimmy Allen, a former Southern
Baptist Convention
president, said. "And then
our task is to find
out what we have and to keep it moving."
"It's not just about making
connections,
it's about finding
people" who share the same vision and
goals,"
said Garland, who will speak in a session on
breaking the cycle
of poverty. "This event is asking, 'Where are we
going as
Baptists?'"
According to
Allen, leaders have invited
experts in fields
like theology, law and politics so that they'll
disseminate best
practices and network with their Baptist
colleagues.
"Yes,
we've been shooting at one another for years,"
she said.
"And instead here is a time when a time
when
we're saying, 'How
many Baptists of different stripes and spots can
we gather together
to talk about what Jesus called us to do, which
is to bind up the
broken-hearted and set captives free and seek
social justice and
respond to issues of global poverty?'"
Read More ....
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January 25 - A Warm Protestant Welcome for Mary
Article:Ecumenical Movement - Protestants Uniting With Roman Catholics
Today, more and more
Protestants are welcoming Mary back into
their spiritual lives. Several new
books by Protestant authors have spurred
new interest in the Virgin Mother.
And a joint Anglican-Catholic commission
recently announced a landmark
accord on Mary that could help bridge the
gap between the two denominations.
Mary's story, says
Beverly Gaventa, a New Testament
scholar at Princeton University and the
coeditor of the book Blessed
One: Protestant Perspectives on
Mary,
"is a wonderful example of divine
grace that Protestants have neglected. It
was seen as Catholic territory, but now the
lines between denominations are
dropping."
Like many
Protestants, Norris says she learned
next to nothing about Mary from her
Methodist and Congregational upbringing,
but after spending time in Benedictine
monasteries she grew to identify with
her. "Like Mary, I am invited each day
to bring Christ into the world in my
prayers, thoughts, and actions,"
she says.
Princeton
theologian Robert Jenson,
coeditor of the book Mary: Mother of
God, says that the doctrinaire
Lutheran pastor of his boyhood-who also
happened to be his father-would have
been appalled by his recommendation to
pray to Mary. But for Jenson,
appealing to Mary is not an insult to Jesus
or God; it is much the same as
prayerfully invoking the name of a
deceased friend or relative.
Read More ....
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January 29 - City Pastors Switch Pulpits for Solitude, Renewal
Article: Social Gospel
MT.
BETHEL, Pa. - When city folk want a
refuge from the hustle and bustle of the
city and the laundry list of
demands from daily life they come to the
quiet hills of Pennsylvania. For
New York pastors, finding renewal is
also as simple as going back to the
basics.
"Silence and solitude are
the two most difficult spiritual disciplines
in the West,"
Pete Scazerro, author of
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality,
told a crowd of 300 New York church
leaders who kicked off their annual
prayer retreat at Mt. Bethel, Pa., on
Monday.
"We're not a reflective
people, we are a doing," said Scazerro to the church
leaders. "But unless we get to God, we
cannot send a life raft to our
church."
"It's a time of
profound spiritual renewal for leaders who
have extraordinary
responsibilities," Mac Pier, president of COPGNY, told
The Christian Post.
COPGNY
seeks "to gather
leaders in an upper room prayer
experience with Jesus," said Pier,
who has been involved with the
organization in New York City since 1991.
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January 30 - 'We are approaching a nuclear peak'
Article: Wars And Rumors Of Wars
Iran is approaching a
new "nuclear
peak," Iranian President
Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said Wednesday
but did
not specify what kind of peek
he might be referring to.
He also urged Western
powers to help build nuclear
power plants in his country, saying it
would be "too late"
if they did not decide to do so immediately,
Iranian state television
reported.
Speaking to a crowd on a visit to
the southern port of
Bushehr,
where Iran's first light-water
nuclear power plant is being built by
Russia, Ahmadinejad urged
other countries to participate as well.
"If you will not
come, this nation will build
nuclear plants based on its own resources
and when you come some
four years later it will reject your request and
then not give you any
opportunity," he said in a
live television speech.
"I am addressing leaders
of two or three powers; do you
remember I sent you a message and told
you to stop being stubborn? If
you think that you can block the progress
of the Iranian nation, you are
wrong."
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January 28 - WEF meeting closes with call for collaborative leadership
Article: One World Government
THE WORLD Economic Forum Annual
Meeting 2008 closed today
with a
call by business, government
and civil society leaders for a new brand
of collaborative and innovative
leadership to address the challenges of
globalisation, particularly the
pressing problems of conflict -
especially in the Middle East,
terrorism, climate change and water
conservation.
"Globalisation is
forcing changes in how people
collaborate in a fundamental way,"
said former
British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"Globalisation is not going to go
away - the
question is what kind of
globalisation do we have," said Daniel
Yergin, chairman of
Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA).
According to Indra K Nooyi, chairman and
chief executive officer of
PepsiCo and an annual meeting co-chair,
companies today have to be engaged
in society,
particularly on environmental
issues. It is critical to running a
business. Companies
"really do believe we should be good corporate
citizens," asserted
another co-chair, James Dimon, chairman and
chief executive officer of
international banking group JP Morgan Chase &
Co.
Panelists also expressed hope that
a
resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
will be reached by the end of
2008. "I am confident that we will have a
resolution this year,"
said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie
Wiesel, who is Professor in
the Humanities at Boston University.
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January 25 - Devotion to Her has long been a Controversial Affair
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
The
Virgin Mary attained cult status in
the earliest centuries of the fledgling
Christian church. And despite a
concerted effort begun by the Vatican 40
years ago to de-emphasize her,
the mother of Jesus
remains a powerful, albeit
polarizing, force within the Catholic
Church. The church's liberal
wing claims the Mary cult is an
unnecessary anachronism. Others-mainly
conservative Catholics-argue that Mary
is as popular as ever and want her
reinstated as the Queen of Heaven.
"Ancient
people needed a feminine figure in their
worship," Boss says. "They were used to having
goddesses." Moreover, virgin births
of gods figured prominently in many
ancient myths. And pioneering Christians
often piggybacked on paganism to
speed conversion. They built
churches where pagan temples once stood
and often proclaimed holy days that
coincided with past pagan celebrations.
Marian devotion went into overdrive in the
Roman west in 431, after the
Council of Ephesus agreed that Mary should be called
Theotokos (Mother of God) rather than
Christotokos (Mother of Christ).
To be sure, there were dissenters
who considered the title
blasphemous. Nestorius, an early leader
of the church in Constantinople,
protested that God has always been,
so
he couldn't have a human mother.
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January 30 - Ahmadinejad: Israel has reached its 'final stage'
Article: Wars And Rumors Of Wars
Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said
Wednesday that the
State of Israel, established 60
years ago this year, has reached the
"final stage" before its destruction.
And he called on the West to
accept the fact of the Jewish state's
"imminent collapse."
Ahmadinejad, who has
repeatedly threatened Israel with
destruction, chose to make his
comments while touring the town of
Bushehr,
where
Russia is currently constructing a
nuclear reactor for Iran.
Earlier this week Israeli Defense
Minister Ehud Barak publicly aired his
belief that
the Iranians
are already working to build
nuclear warheads for the surface-to-
surface missiles.
"What we have right now
is the last chapter, which the Palestinians
and regional nations will
confront and eventually turn in Palestine's
favor,"
the Iranian leader said in a nationally
televised message.
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